Threads of Fate
by Kairi21
Summary: Once a century, someone with a strong will is born. One chosen to defy what fate dictates. Unfortunately for Carona, this century’s “chosen one” is none other than Princess Mint- future Queen of the World... Looks like destiny really screwed up, big time.
1. Prologue

Pairing: Rue x Mint/ possible Maya x Ruenis

Fandom: Threads of Fate/ Dewprism

Genre: Fiction Action /Adventure/Romance

Authoress: Kairi21 (pen name)

Date written: 08-11-09

Disclaimer: Names of places or characters used in this story are completely fictional, any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events and places is purely coincidental. Threads of Fate/Dewprism belongs to it's creators at Square Enix (Squenix), formerly known as SquareSoft.

Teaser: "Ya owe me huh?" Mint murmured to herself. She could barely remember his name now but she rather liked the thought of having such control over someone else.

"I like the sound of that…"

Title: **Threads of Fate**

***********

**Prologue**

**Waking from the Aftermath**

**P**rincess Mint of East Heaven Kingdom definitely got up on the wrong side of the bed today. She had just woken from one of the most lucid dreams she had ever since her tenth birthday. She knew it was a dream because she lived her entire life spoiled and pampered in the castle. There never was a trip to a small town called Carona and she most certainly did not know any boy named Rue.

No, wait.

She did. The fog hanging over her memory, the dream, began to lift and she can see him clearly, "Rue".

***********

For three days he had been asleep after the destruction of Valen's fortress. Ms. Cartha had told the princess that he'd woken up just a little earlier than she did and gone out. Immediately the redhead threw the inn's doors open and ran to follow him. How dare he awaken without her knowing?!

The Princess stepped out into the stone cobbled town square, just in time to see the doll leave Klaus' shop on his way to – wherever he was headed.

"Rue!" The boy paused and turned to see who called him.

Mint broke into a run and skidded to stop just a few steps short of crashing into the boy. Shaking a fist at the expectant youth she asked, "Finally got up huh?"

"You've been sleeping for so long, I thought you were gonna die in bed." She finished with a shrug.

"Thanks for worrying about me."

As if suddenly remembering the importance of personal space, the princess took a few steps back before turning to face Rue once again. "What are you talking about?" she said, barely covering the blush on her cheeks.

"I wasn't worried about you. W-why would I be?" She hurried to finish with a dismissive wave of her hands. The princess always had trouble expressing herself in awkward situations and this time was no exemption.

The girl did not miss the slight look of hurt Rue gave her before turning his gaze to the ground. Perhaps she had gone too far? After all they'd been through, it was very plain to see that they have developed at least a semblance of a relationship. Just what sort, it was hard to tell, but it certainly was an improvement from the one sided trust the pair had to begin with. Was it merely companionship? A bond of friendship perhaps?

Mint should've known better.

The undeniable truth was that she had cared a lot more than she allowed Rue to see. Purposely averting her attention to the burbling fountain at the center of the town square, the ex-royal flipped her hair over her shoulder. It was a nervous habit she had picked up over the two years of her self imposed exile from the kingdom.

"Well, I guess this is it," she began again. "I'm leaving."

Rue unconsciously took a step toward her in surprise. She could tell by the look on his face that he knew it was coming but hated to say goodbye. And he truly couldn't, especially not to someone as unforgettable as the princess.

He did not expect her to leave so soon after the mess with Valen, his creator. In fact, he was clueless on what to do next himself.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Her cheeks still mildly flushed, the girl turned her crimson gaze to level with his own. A small smile graced Mint's lips as she shared her plans after the mad rush for the Dewprism. "I'm going back home," She told him. "Maya's going back, so I might as well too."

"I haven't been back for two years. My ship's leaving in a few minutes." The girl flipped her hair over her shoulder again and closed her eyes as if in deep thought.

She then spun on her heel and paced back towards the inn, still addressing her words to Rue. Her absolute lack of common courtesy, since people normally would face the person they were talking to, had grown on the boy. Somewhere along the way, in between chasing after the relic and keeping Mint out of trouble, the boy had grown accustomed to the princess' personality flaws.

Dare he say it? They've even begun to seem cute to him.

The redhead was a free spirit, he understood that. She always had to be in motion whether she was walking up and down the stairs of Klaus's basement divulging the information she had come across, or dancing in glee upon a new discovery. Even just standing idle, Mint was never completely still. The girl did not seem aware of her habit of bouncing her foot or tapping her weapon against the side of her adventure boot.

"…after I kick back and relax for a while, I'm gonna go [relic] hunting again." she stopped to face the patch of sky visible over Carona's gates. Her hair fluttered in the soft breeze as she continued her monologue.

"I'm gonna find a [relic] that is far more powerful than the Dewprism." She stated with absolute conviction.

A few seconds of silence passed – the calm before the storm and then…

"THEN THE WORLD WILL BE MINE! AHAHAHAHA!"

She pumped her fist into the air to accompany her raised voice, threw her head back and let loose a loud string of laughter, hands upon her hips and shoulders shaking with barely contained megalomania.

Rue could do little more than stand and watch in astonishment as the girl lost herself in her short moment of tyrannical fantasies. Did she not know the meaning of giving up? Perhaps not. Mint never truly lost, anyone who claimed to know her, knew better than to ever think so.

As if hearing his thoughts, the girl swung around and called to him a second time that day. "Rue!"

"Yeah?" the boy dreaded to answer.

The princess ran over to the frozen boy and pinned him under one of her patented fierce glares. "You'd better help me on my next [relic] hunt, ok?" her words came out as more of an order than a request.

"What?" the boy jumped back in surprise. Mint needed to be constantly reminded about the concept of personal space it seemed.

"Why?"

"Because you owe me," the greedy redhead wasn't going to let him get away too easily. "You got Claire back with the Dewprism, and I got nothing." She emphasized the word "nothing", approaching him non-too different from the way a saber tooth stalked its prey.

The girl began stomping the stone floor just a few inches shy of the doll's mismatched boots, yet another one of her 'cute' habits. All embarrassment forgotten, Mint leaned in a little further, drawing her visage ever closer to Rue who had panic written all over his face.

"It's not fair! I worked just as hard, and you got all the reward!" she complained. "So next time, you gotta help me make my wish come true."

Mint smirked at the small frown on the boy's confused features. She could see the slight blush dusting her victim's sun dappled skin. The shadows cast by his ridiculous hat did little to obscure the uncertainty in those dark, almost sable, eyes.

"I don't know…" Rue took a few cautious steps backwards in case Mint suddenly attacked. She was completely unpredictable when angry.

Finally realizing his discomfort, the princess slowly began to make her way towards the ship docks. Her threatening gaze refused to leave him alone until she had her last say in the matter.

"If I find anything about any [relic], I'll contact you." She said before waving goodbye and breaking into a run, "Ok, see ya!"

And with that she was gone. She never once stopped to listen to his reply nor had she even given him the opportunity to refuse. Not that she would let him anyway.

"Heh-heh," she heard Rue chuckle. "She bossed me around 'til the end."

***********

The words still rung in her head even as she begrudgingly rolled out of her loving bed - away from her soft sheets and pillows made with expensive Ephlesian cotton. Moonlight spilled into the room through the half shut windows framed with shards of crystal and dreamstones. Outside, the stars peeked from behind the shadows of the castle's distant towers.

The newly awakened royal turned her bleary eyes to the night sky and listened to the symphony of the crickets and frogs coming from the gardens below. It was rare that she dreamed at all and yet these recurring dreams have been haunting her every moment of slumber – memories that seemed to call from a time not too long ago.

And that boy…

"Ya owe me huh?" Mint murmured to herself. She could barely remember his name now but she rather liked the thought of having such control over someone else.

"I like the sound of that…"

Indeed. Perhaps, it was even that thought that birthed the greatest decision Mint ever made in her entire life as the spoiled terror of East Heaven Kingdom.

It was a decision that was about to change her life and the lives of the friendly inhabitants of a little town called Carona.

And far into the depths of the cosmos came loose a single thread, unraveling the very fabric of time and space on the golden loom of destiny – the first of many tangles to come in the threads of fate.

Thus began, Mint's story.

Again.


	2. Chapter I

**Chapter I**

**World Domination Baby!**

**M**int groggily waited for her eyes to adjust to the scarce illumination in her room.

A pair of golden rings caught the princess' attention. They were propped against the wall, gleaming in the dim light. The oddly glowing artifacts gave off an aura of ethereal quality, almost as if they'd fallen right out of the sky and ridden the moonbeams into the girl's room.

The Dual Haloes, she liked to call them.

They had been the last birthday presents she had received from her mother, one day in the royal gardens, with nothing but the sweet roses of May as their witness.

"Keep these close to your heart my dear." Her mother had said. "And no harm would touch you ever again."

The rings were a part of her mother's days as an explorer. Forged from liquid sunshine in the flames of a dragon's heart and tempered in a pool of moonlight from a sorceress' tears – or so she had been told. Quite frankly, they simply looked like pieces of fancy jewelry any Queen would bring around.

It was an heirloom passed on to every child born of the East Heaven's bloodline with the thirst for adventure. The Dual Haloes had fallen into Mint's hands a day after Maya, her little sister, was born.

A day before the Queen left the kingdom on her last adventure, forever.

Leaving the bed covers on the floor, Mint walked over to trace a finger over the enchanted metal. Vaguely, she could make out the words written in the tongue of the Ancients, engraved on each ring. They were the first words she had learned to read in Ancient Literature class during her training.

The message was split into two:

"_Wherever the spirit is willing," _read the words on one halo.

_ "The universe shall fall into place,"_ the second completed.

The words always brought a deep sense of comfort to the princess and Mint never left her room without the possession of her weapons. She had managed to teach herself some basic spells, and a few not-so basic spells, much to the confusion of her many professors in the magical arts.

Magical ability was inherent in the blood of those born into the East Heaven's royal family. The knowledge to tap into the body's reserve of ethereal energy, they say, had been imparted to the kingdom's founder by a very powerful sorceress during the time of the great Magi wars in the Aeonic era.

Of course, this was not to say magical capability wasn't possible to the common person but magic used by humans born outside of East Heaven was seldom heard of in the Eastern Continent.

Mana power or MP, takes an average of five years to regenerate in any organic body. In essence, the reserves of ethereal energy are inseparable from a being's life force. Excessive use of MP may lead to abnormal aging effects on the user's biological system and in some cases, even lead to death.

Additionally, it should be impossible to perform anything beyond basic spells without certain biological inputs to instruct the caster on the proper ways of manipulating the flow of MP. These inputs, called 'base magics', were usually manifested in form of differently colored forces or 'auras'.

Mint had only ever seen one once in her entire life. The white magic she often used to torment the castle occupants had already been installed into her haloes the day her mother had given them to her.

Unfortunately, not much else was known about base magic, at least, not within the kingdom. Mint had already managed to squeeze out every bit of useful information from all of the kingdom's top magic professors with the exemption of Doll Master. He was the Palace's high magician - renowned throughout the land for being the only one in the world to come close to being one of ancient history's Grand Magicians. More known to Mint to be that irritating guy who always seemed to follow her little sister around the castle…

_Growl_

As if in response to thoughts of the mysterious man, the princess' stomach gave a great lurch.

Or was she just hungry?

The sound was enough to disrupt the chorus of the night outside in the royal gardens.

Deciding not to waste anymore of her time contemplating things she already knew, Mint hastily took hold of her beloved haloes and fastened them to their usual place behind her back. The hoops were held by a simple magical spell she had designed to secure her weapons for easy access.

Judging by the light outside, or lack thereof, it was close to dinnertime. The palace maids and the cook would have already prepared the dishes, a different menu everyday, for tonight's meal. Excited and positively starving, the princess made her way to the royal dining chambers.

The sight that greeted Mint's eyes the moment she slammed through the red doors proved to encourage her healthy appetite all the more. A plethora of richly garnished platters of food was spread out on the magnificent round table positioned at the center of the room.

To the opposite side of the entrance stood the most comfortable looking chair anyone would wish for, just the right height from the floor and twice as wide as all the others in the room. It was almost a small bed really. The red velvet cushions on the majestic piece of furniture matched the patterns etched into the golden frames of the throne.

_The throne that will soon belong to me_, thought the spoiled princess as she hopped about in delight exclaiming, "Wow! Perfect timing."

The royal adviser, a man trusted by the family for a considerable amount of time, dutifully stood in the corner. Quite taken aback by the princess' early arrival, the old man tried to warn Mint not to cause any trouble although he already knew his efforts would prove futile.

Wherever Mint was involved, trouble was sure to follow. It was common knowledge among all members of the palace staff. What Mint wants, she usually gets.

"Princess! Dinner won't be for another 10 minutes!" the man the sisters affectionately called Gramps reprimanded. "Please return to your room at once!"

"Come on, Gramps. I'm starving. I'm not waiting. No way."

Greedily eyeing the steaming dishes, the princess made a show of wiping the corners of her watering mouth off the edges of her imperial garment's sleeve. "Gosh... Just looking at this food makes me drool." She said before proceeding to attack the feast on the table.

"Princess! Don't touch the food!" the old man's warning came too late.

Mint had already dipped a finger into the creamy platter in front of her and brought the extracted sample to her lips, "Mmmm?"

Strange, it was good but the taste was too familiar.

"What bad manners! Princess! Behave yourself!" He tried again but she wasn't listening anymore.

"Hey, take it easy. I'm gonna eat it pretty soon anyway. What difference does it make?" she halfheartedly tried to reason with the distressed adviser.

"Princess! Please!"

"What should I try next?" she continued to taunt the old man with her impertinence. "Let's see..."

The constant and sustained practice of magic, no doubt, had diverse effects on the health of East Heaven's royal family, the increased metabolism speed came as no surprise, especially since the princess tended to exaggerate the use of her MP for the pettiest of reasons, from skirmishes with her younger sister to threatening the kitchen personnel to cook meals out of the assigned dining schedules specially for her.

"Yuck Pumpkins!" She spluttered, desperately trying to spit out the horrible taste left in her mouth. "He knows I hate pumpkins! Oooh that chef is soooo dead."

In the time the old man spent mentally apologizing to the late Queen for the way Mint turned out, it seemed he had conveniently forgotten to inform the princess of the contents of a particularly deceptive dish she was eyeing – an error that would have potentially caused much more of a ruckus had Mint not been too busy sampling the rest of the prepared dinner.

The old adviser's small victory however, was cut short as the princess unceremoniously dropped herself into her father's chair, effectively defiling the royal code of etiquette on yet another level. "Ah, this is the life."

"What are you doing!?" The mollified adviser hastened to correct Mint's rudeness. "That is His Majesty's seat!"

"Yeah, but it'll be my seat in no time."

The look she gave him was enough to send any other grown man home crying but the adviser bravely stood his ground. "Yes. Someday, you will be queen of the East Heaven Kingdom. However--" he tried again.

Had he known that the princess' words weren't meant to hold any malice at all, had he realized that Mint was sincere, then perhaps the matter would have been resolved without things escalating to ridiculous proportions.

"Exactly. So why are you making a big fuss?" At that time, the princess was completely sure she was next. All she had known was that she was born to rule –

"My goodness!"

Maya, Mint's younger sister and second princess of East Heaven Kingdom, stepped into the room and calmly walked over to the pair. A man clad in black with a strange mask concealing his face, followed the girl and stood close to the wall behind her.

"What's up Maya? Why is Doll Master with you?" Mint tried to be civil for once.

"Why are you sitting in father's seat?! Oh, my dear sister, we must talk." Maya ignored the elder's weak attempt at courtesy.

"Later, I'm starving. C'mon, let's eat," Mint said, playing at her sister's game and turning to once again face the feast on the table.

The young girl shook her head with an exasperated sigh. Truly, her sister's arrogance knew no bounds. Not even the presence of the kingdom's most powerful magician, the masked man standing behind Maya was enough to deter the elder princess disrespect.

Mint's selfishness was legendary indeed.

And so what else was left to do but fall into their daily routine of Maya trying to lecture her sister on their role as heirs to the kingdom? No sooner than the question left the younger's lips, the girl sprung up from the king's seat to oppose every word with one of her own. One by one Mint began listing down the reasons of her claim to the throne.

"The point is, I'm the most qualified to become the next queen," she finished.

All the while Maya stood and listened amusedly to her sister's babbling. The sinister smile gracing her pink lips gave the elder an inexplicably foreboding feeling. That expression always had that effect on her ever since the death of their dear mother.

"- not anymore," Maya replied with just a hint of cruelty in her soft voice.

The confusion on the elder's face gave the girl a sick sense of satisfaction. Yes, today was the day she brought the hand of vengeance down upon her sister. Her sister with her lack of etiquette, her sister who always got what she wanted – their father's favorite…

Mint.

"What are you talking about?" she heard the slight panic in the elder's tone. Oh yes, this confrontation was going to sting.

It was then that the mysterious man decided to join the merry little conversation. Surely, anyone in the kingdom would have jumped at the chance to catch Mint the tyrant off guard?

"The high council convened this morning," he began.

Then Mint understood what was happening. She kept her mouth shut just in case something important came up. What obscure royal rule that those old farts dug up in the texts had she broken this time?

"They have voted unanimously against your succession to the throne."

"Wait wha-?!" Mint could not believe her ears.

There must have been a mistake – a terrible, terrible mistake! Perhaps she had misheard? How could she have lost her right to the throne? _Her?!_ But... but…

_She was the only one suitable enough to rule East Heaven in the future!_

"You are no longer qualified to rule the kingdom," Maya simplified.

To say the deposed princess was outraged would be an understatement. Mint immediately demanded an explanation for the sudden 'illogical' decision. Somewhere inside, a small piece of her was still waiting for someone to tell her that everything was just a bad joke, that this was just a horrible nightmare she was having.

Alas! No such assurance came.

"What did you expect!? You have done nothing right! You have neglected your training! You break curfew every day! You spend lavishly and eat what you like..." Maya accused. She never seemed to run out of things to complain about when it came to her sister's irresponsibility.

"The list goes on and on. Did you honestly believe that a spoiled selfish person like you can become the queen of our renowned kingdom?"

"Hey! When the time comes, I'll start shaping up," the girl wanted to reply.

How could she explain when she could not understand it herself? People often mistook her assertiveness as arrogance and there had been many a time that her strong will got her into trouble.

She was a natural born leader, how could anybody even expect her to bend over backwards for a set of rules that have been created centuries ago? Did not anyone else agree that the time for change has come? That those rules were clearly made for a time long past?

She was open-minded and they labeled her a deviant.

She was not rude, but free-spirited.

She was not violent, but strong.

And she was most certainly not reckless, but a risk-taker - _there was a difference_.

What was wrong with wanting a little adventure? Really, East Heaven and its dumb rigid administration frustrated Mint to no end.

But she would not give up.

If the loss of a love one had taught her anything it was that life was too short to be wasted on trying to please others. She had spent the first half of her childhood watching her mother live the way her father told her to.

The other half was spent watching her father rule the kingdom the way the stuck up old elders wanted him to.

The elders… the council.

The council and their damned rules – their damned decisions.

_Click_

The gears in the girl's mind finally fit into place.

And without realizing the cosmic significance of her simple decision, Mint unwittingly changed the course of destiny for herself and a boy she had only ever met in her dreams.

"Our kingdom will not last one year if you were at the helm," Doll Master's cold voice broke into the princess' thoughts.

"…probably not even half a year," the royal adviser agreed.

Mint turned to the old man as if she had actually expected him to defend her. In fact, she had at least thought he'd be just a little bit more considerate -

"So, my dear sister... The next ruler of East Heaven will be – hm?" Maya thought she heard Mint say something.

Indeed she had. Under normal circumstances, the elder sister would have begun resolving the matter with well-placed insults and a strategic brandishing of her beloved weapons of destruction. Instead, she only stood and mirrored Maya's smile as she calmly regarded them.

No. She wasn't smiling.

The grotesque imitation of the gesture on her sister's lips was positively dripping with malice.

"I said you're right Maya."

That left them baffled, every one of them.

Mint turned and began walking towards the door with a perceptible bounce in her steps. A few feet passed Doll Master's back, the girl paused, as if she just remembered something else that she wanted to say, "Oh yeah…"

"They gave ya' the Book of Cosmos huh?" she asked with a bemused smile, referring to the item in her sister's pale palms.

The Book of Cosmos, the greatest [relic] of East Heaven Kingdom. Within resided the spirit of the great Aeon, Atenacius, and the secrets of the Ancients. It was a powerful force that could prove fatal if left in hands of the wrong person.

Since when had Mint ever paid attention to their classes to know about, what's more, recognize their kingdom's most protected possession?

The hairs on the young girl's neck stood on end as she tried, and failed, to shake off the bad feeling that something was terribly out of place…as if this was not the way their conversation was supposed to be like. As if something was seriously wrong about the way Mint was talking to her.

Maya feared her sister had finally cracked.

_What was she thinking?_

"That's okay. You go right on ahead and rule East Heaven with that silly little stack of old papers you've got with you… my dear sister," Mint's words were spoken softly.

"I've got my eyes on something much better," she added, barely in a whisper.

Then she continued moving towards the exit of the room. No one dared stop her for fear that they'd add to the damage they suspected was already done to the ex-princess' mind.

"Oh yeah, have dinner sent up to my chambers Gramps and tell the chef to update his recipes," they heard her say, "Everything I tasted tonight bored me."

And with that, the kingdom's most selfish, rude, unruly, and violent former princess left without so much as a word contesting her deposition.

Indeed in all the confusion, the old man failed to remember…

all of the dishes on the table that night had been the chef's _newest_ creations.


	3. Chapter II

**Chapter II**

**An Unlikely Alliance**

**S**omething had been peculiarly out of place ever since Mint walked out of the dining area.

It was as if a spell had been cast to drown the entire castle in a most unusual state of placidity. The place was never this quiet no matter how late into the night and it was this sense of foreboding that plagued anyone who dared disturb the eerie silence that has befallen the castle's empty halls.

Dinner had been sent to the princess' chambers, as she requested, and the dishes had been returned to the kitchens to be washed hours ago.

There wasn't a sign of activity from her room since then.

No noise bounced off the walls. There were no sudden explosions to alert the guards, no commands to send the maids into panic and no shrill voices to signify that the siblings had gotten into another squabble – nothing.

They had simply assumed that the princess had gone to bed early, as unlikely as that seemed, and soon all the castle occupants had gone to sleep as well.

All but two.

Maya stood outside her elder sister's door, questioning her own common sense and lack of better judgment. The young princess couldn't help but wonder what the hell she could be thinking, wandering the halls in the dead of night when not even her father's loud snoring dared venture into the empty spaces of the castle.

Someone might as well fetch her a knife from the kitchen so she could slice through the tension that was hanging thick in the air.

The girl wished life could be as simple as it was in the worlds she escaped into, spending countless hours reading through her favorite books in the castle library. She would then be the brave hero, sneaking around in the shadows of the evil witch's den, or the nervous maiden anxiously awaiting the arrival of her secret lover.

Alas she was none of these and the situation was far more ridiculous than the romantic prose to be found within the yellowed pages of an expensive book. No. Oddly enough, the reason she was out here was because she needed to speak to her sister. The sister she knew would never give up the throne that easily.

Something was amiss and the slightly ajar door of Mint's room confirmed her suspicions.

"Mint?" she tested her voice to see if her vocal chords were still functioning properly.

Soft moonlight slipped into the dim corridor through the small crack in the doorway. Maya decided to forgo knocking and took a little peek instead.

Inside, shadows danced on the walls of Mint's room. Not a single patch of the pristinely washed Ephlesian cotton sheets could be seen under the steadily growing pile of clothes that was strewn haphazardly about the bed.

"No, no no! I can't take any of these with me!" Mint's clear frustration seeped into her hushed words as she proceeded to raid the contents of her fairly sized wardrobe.

Out flew robes, gowns and cocktail dresses. Silk sashes, diamond encrusted belts and various pieces of jewelry joined the mess of papers, books and pillows littering the lush carpeted floor.

In two stacks among the clothes left on the bed were folded pairs of leggings and underwear. The girl hated to waste her time trying to figure out what else to bring with her.

The moss green gown she wore to Maya's last birthday celebration?

"Nope."

The teal ensemble given to her by the prince of Ixpen on his last diplomatic visit to the kingdom?

"No…."

The stupid robes she had to wear every time Gramps forced her to sit down in every boring High Council meeting?

"Nah, don't think so."

The golden trimmed, pink chiffon wedding gown with elaborate ruffles and a huge bow that her father had tried to make her wear last month when he attempted to force her into an arranged marriage with the prince of –

"- not even thinking about it!" Mint violently tossed the pink monstrosity across the room while waving the horrible memories of the failed wedding away from her mind.

At that point, Maya had gained enough courage to forget about seeking permission to enter her sister's room and pushed the door fully open. Mint's gaze snapped from the rumpled clothes to the intruder almost instantly.

Her muscles tensed and ready for an attack, the girl's hand instinctively wandered to the rings fastened to her back. Her apprehension was replaced by confusion when the dim light made her sister's form recognizable. "Maya is that you?"

"Yes dear sister, it is I." Maya began before noticing the poor state of order her sister's room was in. "My goodness! What is all this?"

"What's it look like to you?" Mint lowered her guard just a little bit, reminding herself that Maya now had the Book of Cosmos. "I'm packing."

Maya's brows furrowed in question. Packing? But that was absurd! Where was her sister going? Did their father know about this?

Neither of the sisters has left the castle alone before and they most certainly did not do their own packing. Especially not Mint. "Where are you going?"

Mint knew that question was coming next so she began stuffing her underwear and leggings into her knapsack to stall for time. How was she to answer that when she couldn't even explain why she had this sudden urge to leave for a town she only ever knew existed in her dreams? She wasn't even sure that there was really a town called Carona at all, nor did she even know what general direction it was in.

Still, she had to do _something_.

If she had to leave the administration of her kingdom in the hands of those stuck up, close minded old farts any longer then she might as well run away and hatch a plan to win it back. But the girl knew leaving the safety of East Heaven meant learning to stand on her own. Mint was no fool, brash, but not simple-minded.

If she wanted adventure, she had to learn to kick butt faster. Late night sparring sessions with the Masters and self taught magic just wouldn't cut it anymore. Her first logical step would then be to go to –

"Central."

Maya was surprised. She hadn't expected Mint to be serious. Indeed, her sister had threatened to run away a number of times before, usually when she got something her sister wanted, but it was only now that the princess seemed so decided to go through with it. "Y-you're really going to leave aren't you?"

"Yep." Mint answered without even bothering to look at Maya anymore. Her plan was finally taking shape in her head and she was too occupied with trying to catch up with the speed of her running thoughts.

Mint had a natural talent for thinking on her toes.

"And since I don't seem to have any clothes that would pass as normal in a public setting, I'm just gonna have to go in what I'm wearing now. Maybe I'll buy myself more later." Mint stated with as much vulgarity as usual.

"I can't be Queen of the world just sitting around here watching dad get bossed around by those old bags you know."

"…" Maya did not know what to say to that.

Mint slung the small bag over her back and checked to see that her rings were in place before kicking a few dresses out of her way to the door. The larger picture of her devious plan slowly began to take form in the girl's mind as she brushed passed her speechless sister.

"Central's got an updated library of texts on the ancients," she mused, "I need more information on the doo…" the girl paused.

"On the Duper...Du...Dupe something. Ah who cares! I'll find out once I get there."

"_The Dewprism?"_, Maya thought as she ran to catch up with her sisters pace. "Mint! How do you know of that?"

Maya dared not believe any one of their magical instructors would be careless enough to mention the potentially dangerous topic to Mint of all people.

The elder princess continued to walk down the corridor without bothering to look back at Maya. She knew her sister would follow close behind. The conversation wasn't over yet.

"If I told you Maya, you wouldn't believe me," she said. "I don't even believe it myself…"

Soon, the castle's main doors came into view, just a few more paces down the grand staircase and across the polished marble floor. The cold milky surface of the reflective marble was streaked with gleaming streaks of pure gold. Ah, how she would miss this place…

"Mint wait! What do you really plan to do anyway?" Maya finally tired of her sister's uncharacteristically cryptic words.

Mint paused and turned to her sister. She knew it was now or never. Should she get caught, her dreams of ever leaving would be toast.

"You wanna know what I'm gonna do huh?" she placed a hand on her hip to show Maya that her patience was wearing dangerously thin.

"I've decided Maya," she announced, "that I'm going to be Queen of the World."

"What?"

"I knew the council disapproved of my er… choice of lifestyle, but I didn't think they'd go as far as revoking my right to the crown."

Already Mint's hand was at the golden handle of castle's main doors. Never mind that the entrance was locked, how did she even expect to be able to push them open?

It took three servants to move the majestic doors enough to allow passage into the castle everyday. The doors were only closed at the end of the work day, before the castle servants retired to their quarters.

The ridiculous security measure was implemented merely a moth ago to reinforce the strict palace curfew. Sadly, it did little to keep the princess in. Trying the backdoor would have been a good idea but that door was closer to the servant's quarters and that increased the chances of getting caught.

"How on Earth do you plan to get passed that now, dear sister?" Maya watched her sister tinker with the heavy lock and gasped when she heard a faint click. The lock fell to the floor with a dull thud.

"A little trick Trap taught me to shut me up about him crushing over Mode… hard." Mint explained with a mischievous grin.

"Y'see Maya," the girl continued, "I don't believe for one second that those damn old men at the council find you any more suitable to rule East Heaven than I am."

"I mean, sure ya got the brains and I'll admit, the influence, but without that book y'got now, your strength just doesn't count for much."

Maya couldn't help but feel insulted although the girl knew her sister spoke the truth, childish rivalry and jealousy aside.

"So I thought I'd get me a relic too, just to even out the odds."

Maya was appalled to say the least. Did Mint know the implications of the things she was telling her? If she wasn't careful, she could very well be charged of treason for even saying anything about taking over the current Kingdom's administration, not to say running away was any better.

This had to be, by far, the most ludicrous scheme the number one terror of East Heaven Kingdom had cooked up yet.

Mint ran back up to the top of the staircase and Maya breathed a sigh of relief, thinking her sister had thought better of it and decided to just forget about everything. However, this little moment of respite proved premature when her sister decided to continue her explanation, almost forgetting to keep her voice down in all her excitement.

"It's just like our history lessons Maya. Who knew Prof. Darwin could make something this cool sound so boring huh?"

"We both know there are only two ways to gain rule over a kingdom…" Maya could see Mint grinning madly at her.

The girl stood frozen in shock as her sister recklessly hopped unto the staircase railing and slid down towards her at a frightening speed.

The young princess barely had time to scramble out of the way as Mint sailed over her head, aiming a kick towards one of the heavy doors.

Once the heavy sole of her boot hit the wooden surface of the door, the girl propelled herself back and drew her rings to fire a few rounds of white energy at the impact point of the kick.

Unbelievably, the door gave way enough to allow one person to squeeze through. Even harder to believe was the lack of reaction to the obvious commotion produced by Mint's act of violence.

"A war dear sister? Have you completely lost all sense of respect?" Maya spoke in a hushed tone. She could not understand why she seemed to be the one more concerned about getting caught. She figured this wasn't the first time the elder sister got the both of them in trouble.

It probably wouldn't be the last time either.

Fortunately, the servants' quarters were in a different area at the back of the castle and the palace guards were patrolling the perimeter in another sector of the royal grounds.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Maya thought she ought to tell her father about the apparent lack of security.

"Well," Mint returned her rings to their fastenings behind her skirt " this is it."

Maya hesitated but…

"Mint, don't!"

The older princess had already managed to slip passed the gap in the doors but poked her head back to respond to her sister. "If those geezers that make up the high council couldn't even stop me, what makes you think you can Maya?!"

The emptiness of the hallway threatened to drown the pair in the endless deafening silence so much that one would think no one else was in the castle at all.

But Mint knew better.

The castle, gardens, the area being patrolled by the guards, was a thirty-minute sprint from their position.

This was where the years the girl spent being chased around by her nannies came in handy. She knew the palace safety protocols even better than the captain of the royal guards did himself.

Maya cringed at the cold look her sister fixed her with. The young princess nervously clutched the Book of Cosmos closer to her chest as if that would stop her frantically beating heart from fluttering right out of her rib cage.

"Y'know I'm still leaving even if you try to stop me," the look dissolved into Mint's usual arrogant smile, "Then, I'm gonna come back and steamroll you and that book with a [relic] of my own."

"Then the throne will be mine… and after that…" Mint looked absolutely giddy with excitement.

"IT'S WORLD DOMINATION TIME!!!"

Evading the inevitable no more, Mint finally dropped the question into the tension surrounding the both of them. "Now or never Maya," she said.

"My side," she shifted a little to show the other the space behind her, "or theirs?" she pointed back to the room Maya was in.

The girl slowly lifted her eyes to address the challenge in her sister's tone. Their wills locked in a fierce battle of equal determination.

For once, Maya believed Mint was right. For the first time in the history of both princesses, one sincerely agreed with the other. Dear Lord, what was to become of East Heaven now that the elder had finally managed to sway the other in her direction?

Maya made her choice.

Fire met fire and the girl's lips moved to speak words far stronger than anything that has been said in all her time spent in the castle.

"Very well then, I shall not attempt to convince you to stay any longer."

Mint smiled in triumph, glad that Maya finally saw things her way. The invisible force that had frozen the pair in the heat of the moment began to dissipate but just as the elder princess took her first step away from the door, the other began to speak once more.

"Hold it Mint, I'm coming with you."

It was not a plea nor was it a question. It was clearly a command meaning there was absolutely no room left for an argument.

"I'm coming with you." Maya repeated.

And then the tables were turned on her dear sister.

Maya had, as with many occasions before, taken her sister's challenge and thrown it right back in her face!

Mint watched her world come to a crashing halt for the second time that day and this time, the nagging feeling that something was terribly out of place was harder to shake off.

But before her mind could catch up to the current situation, her lips had expelled the words into the night air almost automatically. Perhaps it was because of her willingness to take risks or it was the deeper reluctance to be traveling alone.

Whatever it was, Mint could not quite comprehend why she said, "You have fifteen minutes to grab you stuff. Any longer and the guards will find us."

"Try anything funny, and I'll leave you behind understood?" she added just in case.

Maya silently nodded and ran back to gather the things she would need for the trip from her room.

As Mint watched her sisters slowly disappearing form, she could not help but wonder out loud, "What now?"

But there was nobody around left to answer that question for her.


End file.
